VOLUME 2

IN PROCESS WITH GRACE MCLEAN

As a performer and songwriter, Grace’s work has consistently employed her own voice as a tool not only of performance but also of composition and arrangement, as ex-emplified by her staggering proficiency with a loop pedal (see her YouTube channel). She shared with us a wealth of drafting mate-rials from her pop opera In the Green, com-missioned by LCT3 and developed through many prestigious residencies. Noteworthy elements include her own specific way of spelling chords and melodic lines using text and the sheer variety of ways in which she interacts with paper while planning struc-ture.

to Hildegard for over 30 years. Locked away together, these two shared a unique and heightened reality; leading one of them to embrace death, and the other to celebrate life as long as she lives it.

Tell us about the images included here; what are we looking at?

I’ve shared lyrics from one of the first songs I wrote for the show, some research (Hildegard has pulled me in a lot of different directions, from her own personal history, to migraine art, to the healing properties of sound, to the many forms the goddess/demon/first wife of Adam, Lilith has taken), an outline for a fairy tale storybook version of the show I gave to myself as an assignment, and a storyboard outline of the musical itself. 

Tell us about your songwriting process. Was your process for this project consistent with or different from the way in which you’ve approached composition in the past?

Tell us a little bit about this project. (inspiration, brief summary, performance history, etc.)

How does a single voice rise above the confines of her circumstances to shake and shape a powerful world view? In the Green is a pop opera exploring the origin story of one of Medieval history’s most powerful and creative women. Before Hildegard von Bingen became a doctor of the church, a saint, an exorcist, intimate of Popes and Holy Roman Emperors, author of the first western opera and numerous groundbreaking compositions of music, science and exegesis, she was a little girl locked in a cell.

Hildegard, given by her parents as a tithe to the church, and Jutta von Sponheim, an elective anchoress, shared a small cell connected to an abbey in the Rhineland region of Germany during the mid-12th century.  There, unable to leave this literal tomb, they lived as dead to the world. Jutta served as tutor, mentor, mother and friend 339

MUSICAL THEATER TODAYVOLUME 2

I’ve been working on this show for a few years, and before I found my way in (that is, this origin story I’m trying to tell with Hildegard and Jutta locked away together for 25 years—true story), I was just fascinated by the character and figure of Hildegard, and especially interested in the problem of her as a saint. So I read a bunch of stuff about her life, including works of her own (Scivias, her first book which took her 10 years to write, is a real mind-fuck). Anyway, from there I was just looking for things that inspired me, things that resonated with me. Maybe a poem she wrote, or something she wrote in a letter—it started with her own words. I would use that as a starting point to then imagine music of my own. 

Fig. 1 shows an expansive variety of documents. How much of this is research and how much is original textual/lyrical content?

It’s pretty half and half! In the beginning when I was doing a lot of research I would take notes on whatever I was reading and then type up those notes and print them out—I like having things in hard copy so I can make more notes on top. I’m mostly writing on my computer, but I’ll get to a point where I need to see it in a different way—so that gets printed so I can take notes on that before implementing them back into typed text. And I try to keep anything that I took handwritten notes on, because I ask myself a lot of questions and like to be reminded of what those questions are, even if I think I’ve answered it back in the script.

Where did this page depicted in Fig. 2 come from? Are the intervals here referring to harmonic or melodic execution (ie, two notes sounding at once vs. one after the other)? Do you believe that certain musical intervals have absolute conceptual meaning (perhaps one that even transcends different cultural organizations of pitch)?

I don’t remember how I first stumbled upon this, but this is a text by Kay Gardner, a Sound Healer. What I really loved about this

Fig. 1

Left side notes

Jutta appearing periodically in opening “real time”

sequence as a demon, mother, ecclessia, sapientia

*song about/for/to Jutta (see Scivias nightmare)

bottom notes

*in opening - we must set up an idea of dissonance as

something to be suppressed, so when it can no longer be

suppressed it will take us to a new place

→ in healing someone, there is no choice but to linger in dissonance and this breaks us away

are the visuals that accompany Gardner’s description of the intervals. Hildegard is known as one of the first documented Western composers, but I first came to know her through her art, which is mostly of her crazy divine visions.  She believes in the interconnectedness of everything, which is something I’m trying to keep in mind as I write the piece—how the music will be embodied, how these bodies move through space (especially because one of the characters is a puppet—Hildegard is played by three people simultaneously, wee!). Light is also a character, so we’re going to get to literally play with how things are seen—what’s real, or a dream, or hyperreality? I don’t know if I believe that musical intervals have absolute conceptual meaning but I’m interested in how they affect both singer and listener, and in fact that’s something I intend to explore in a future piece on spiritual music across cultures. Fig. 2

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Talk to us about Fig. 3-4. What does the emboldened text signify?

This means multiple voices sing, not just the soloist. It’s just a cue for them.

Why no punctuation other than parentheses?

It gives the parentheses a particular weight. The parentheses signify that the parenthetical is sung under the preceding line

Do the notes at the top of the page signify melody or chords?

The groupings of three notes are a chord. For example DGB means these notes are played simultaneously, DGBb as well, etc.  This is because I don’t know chords and I just have to write down every note I play!  The line below, however, signifies single notes.  That becomes the bass line played under the verses.

Having the lover - celebration

Lesson for J

see p 95-96 “Mysteries…”

(Refering to the book Mysteries of the Middle Ages by

Thomas Cahill)

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

What do the letters (J H J H etc.) signify in the left margin?

J for Jutta, H for Hildegard—who sings what.

Tell us about the difference between these two documents.

The first one is the first draft with a few sparse notes, and the second is the beginning of an edit.  The first stanza (beginning “I was playing outside”) has since been re-written, and this document was me working out the meter.  

More specific musical directives appear on the second version of the document (“2 3 4” and “slide 3rd,” for example). At what stage, if any, will this material begin to manifest as sheet music?

Now! I’ve finally hired someone to transcribe the music which is VERY exciting.  I send

her recordings of the songs (with each part soloed out whenever there are harmonies) along with lyrics.

Let’s move on to Fig. 5 and 6. Describe these two images to us; does the variance in shape and size of documents play a role in your drafting? What does the grid-like layout mean to you? Are these song titles, dramatic beats, or…?

This is an example of a method I use to arrange the story (Fig. 5). Notecards are ideal but if they’re not available, I just tear up paper to about notecard size. Then I write the title of each song and each scene (even if they’re not written, but there’s an idea for one and an intention for what should dramatically happen) and then organize them into a story.  Vert Note Pieces was from an assignment I gave myself—I was reading Women Who Run With Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and was thoroughly

inspired by her retelling of classic myths and fairy tales, so I decided to use her break down of the story of Vasilisa (it’s a little Cinderella, a little Baba Yaga) to try to tell my story of Hildegard and Jutta. The paper on the left (Fig. 6) has all the elements of this particular journey as outlined by Pinkola Estes, and I numbered and color-coded each one.  I then coded each of my Note Pieces (you can see the colors and numbers in the picture) to try to correspond some of the work I had already done to fit this kind of fairy tale soul journey.  I then wrote out a whole weird-ass, stream-of-consciousness fairy tale for Hildegard and Jutta, which actually taught me a lot about their story.  I have incorporated some of those elements I found in my fairy tale into the musical.

To what degree do you incorporate the Hildegard von Bingen’s own music, and the general musical characteristics of her time, into your work?

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Fig. 5

Jutta’s Dream I

(I dreamt I saw a girl)

(too good mother dies)

Little Life

(too good mother dies)

Death Ceremony

(too good mother dies)

I See a Spider

(experiencing the crude shadow)

The Rule

(experiencing the crude shadow)

What Is A Dream

(navigating the dark)

Jutta’s Dream II

(walking on the road) 

Ursula: Matins Vigil

Period/Time H’s personal

distress, J helps

(navigating the dark)

Jutta’s Dream Interpreted 

- H sees beyond the

flesh

- H had a sister who

died, this was a

travesty

- J “love doesn’t

matter”

- issues of choice,

creativity, freedom

What Goes On Inside

(navigate dark)

Panic/Pain/Pleasure

(navigate dark)

- H panics, dilemma 2

- J helps again

The First Verb

Jutta’s Panic Attack

Spider Reprise/Garden

- H creates something

for J

We Are Made for Each Other

Eve

I Am Hungry (experience the

crude shadow again)

First Light (facing the wild hag)

- H encounters, talks

to the supernatural

Vision

- hag

- non rational

- Separating

- Asking 

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I use some of her words, and my interpretation of her words throughout the piece. Her music shows up specifically at the top and in the Vision, a big turning point in the story. Specifically I’m using the text and melody of her song “O Viridissima Virga” (O branch of freshest green)—but I use it as a starting off point. It gets pretty warped and warbled by the end there. Also, because I’m using a vocal looping station for about half of the music, I intend for this to reference the repetitive drone like quality of the chants from the time. So, I always look to Hildegard for inspiration, but I try not to be tied down to a particular structure. I like to think that’s the way she would do it, too.

Fig. 6

Vasalisa:

1. allow the too good mother to die

2. Exposing the crude shadow

3. navigating the dark

4. facing the wild hag

5. serving the non-rational

6. separating this from that

7. asking the mysteries

What if Jutta is played by a child? 

And I voice her complexity?

Whatever tasks there are w/ Jutta must speak to H’s

disability. Maybe she’s lacking senses? Is blind? Has to

repress or dial back or compensate in some way around

what she’s supposed to do with Jutta. If blind, probably gets

eyes in Vision.

*whose bones are these?

Does she have a voice?

- H arrives broken, weak, scared

- J teaches, H has trouble learning

(J and H resist each other)

- H breaks at least once, J helps

- H becomes repressed (J thrives)

- they come together in harmony (?)

- J breaks something of H’s

- H’s mind breaks - Vision

- Vision is true learning - H blossoms.

- H shares her new knowledge, J rages

- J laments

- H and J grow further apart

- So far apart that they are back together

(love and death)

- H uses her skills to help J die

- H becomes whole

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